I really wanted to go to this non-Kobe game.....but even though the Lakers have lost 4 of 5 and there is no Kobe nor Nash, their athleticism and three point shooting still scare me and there is no way I am going to pay for Laker $$$$ tickets and see us lose. It would be a different story if we were sitting 5-3 instead of 3-5...then I would take a chance....

With that being said...I will be cheering here at home for the Pistons some 45 miles from Staples Center........

The Pistons gave up an average of 110.0 points during a four-game losing streak before pulling out a 97-90 win at Sacramento on Friday. Josh Smith led the way with 21 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, five steals and four blocks.

"He was spectacular," coach Maurice Cheeks told the team's official website. "In order for us to be really good, this is the way Josh has to play and he's capable of doing this. He was really, really good."
NBA.com

Funny I attended game 3 of that Sixer-Laker final back in 1983 when the Sixers swept the Lakers. That was when I cheered for the Lakers.....I stopped in 1988, when the Pistons came to town in June for a few games......

I paused the game for a bit in the 3rd Q and I then switched channels during a commercial break to check the football game and lost my saved game. They were down big all the sudden but I have no idea what happened.

I've actually been enjoying watching Stuckey play these last 2 games. I like how Jennings is dribbling under the basket on offense and finds a cutter in the lane coming out the other end. Stuckey has been the beneficiary of this and it has taken 3-4 dribbles and 3-4 potentially stupid things out of his repertoire.

I really liked the short rotation. Mo's got to chose between Bynum and Billups when they're back.

I thought Jennings was playing well again before I skipped ahed to the 4th Q. Smith also.

This team is disorganized--right now it is back to the Curry/Keuster years. There is no unity and no backbone.

The Pistons scored for themselves in the first half and also for the Lakers (inventing ways to make bad passes and allowing Johnson to run the court for lobs). At one point, the JJ, Singler, Stuckey, Pope and Drummond group let an 8 to 9 point lead slip away. Nobody out there except Stuckey who could get a shot off with that group. No one out there who could shoot.

In fact, the team as a whole does not have anyone who has shown they can shoot, I mean, really shoot NBA style. Even Jennings hasn't shown he can make mutiple baskets when the game counts scoring instead at garbage time. So on that Laker 16 point run in the second half, the Pistons have no one who can score a point to stop it. After the Laker guards made a few shots, the team collapsed. Now the Lakers have no real guard play either but at least their guards can make a shot or two. And finally, they did.

Nine games now. How many games has Monroe helped the team win? At times, he looked half-awake out there. Drummond and Smith played. Jennings is trying to learn the point, trying to make assists. But right now, only Smith and Drummond have shown consistent play from game to game. Stuckey tried, hit some shots, but he is not the shooter that the team needs. Singler moves without the ball but he is not a good enough shooter yet. Pope is a rookie.

The organization will have to make an early move if this keeps up. There is too much talent to go backward. The coach has shown little as well. Time to stop experimenting and get a rotation and a system. Right now, I would only give a thumbs up to Smith and Drummond. Smith must be wondering what he is doing playing on such a disorganized team at the moment.

Coach coached to lose this one. Singler was minus 20, providing nothing at all. This coach still believes Singler is an NBA small forward. He is not.

Coach did shorten up the guard rotation to just Pope, Jennings, and Stuckey. Stuckey did well on scoring sure, but coach should leave in Pope longer to keep our perimeter defense better.

Just to point out how bad Singler is as a sub, lets look at it this way - he comes in for Drummond. How far can you go down in ability with that substitution? Certainly not any worse than what you get. Note, JJ is on the team, and JJ can actually play as an NBA small forward. But in this game, we saw him play a totally disastrous stint at power forward, with Singler at small forward, giving us a totally incapable front line. Drummond was in with these two, but as I have said, I guess, maybe a millions times, Drumond can not do it all by himself.

Smith, Monroe, and Drummond all had fine games. Jennings made four triples in a row in crunch time in a desperate attempt to come back from about a 20 point deficit. Hmm, sound familiar? The 20 points down Singler caused us. What is worse, coach actually brought Singler back in there in crunch time, I guess to just make sure we could not possibly win. It is nice though to see that ability of Jennings to hit those 4 straight clutch shots.

The Pistons failed to close out on shooters constantly in this game. LA shot very well, but if you leave them that open on a consistent basis, you really can't put that down to bad luck. Again, Pope should have played more. Stuckey does not need 30 minutes off the bench.

Note, Pope, and Stuckey, look bad on the plus minus in this game. They were out most of the time Singler was out there.

The specifics on how bad Singler is as a sub for our front line: A rebound, which he got uncontested, and 2 points made. This was in 20 minutes of play. In contrast, all the guys he replaced were either at or near double doubles. The dropoff when Singler comes in is completely not needed when you have a perfectly good sub in Mitchell who could be playing those minutes. Or JJ. Or Datome. Do not put an undersized guy like Singler in and try to mitigate it be having him chase a quick guy like Young, which he can't do either.

Of note, the Pistons shot a team high percent for the first half, with all but 3 makes in the paint. This starting unit is working. Just no bench, due to bad decisions on who plays by the coach, for the bench.

I telling you all, we can't sleep on these guys. Its a bunch of no names, but if we are soft on the perimeter, they will shoot it just to test us......

Click to expand...

Hate to quote myself, but I toldya so.... After shooting 63% in the first half and still only leading by six, you knew this was going to be an interesting second half. But I didn't expect us to get blown off the court. The Pistons basically folded the tent in the second half ala what the Lions did in their game earlier in the day. A 10-0 run at the end of third extended to a 16-0 run and that was all she wrote for this game....at least half of pistons fans in chat exited and went to bed. The Lakers outgunned the Pistons 64-43 in the second half.

Coming into the game the Pistons were allowing 102 per game and the Lakers 104......but when the Pistons give up over 100.....it means probably a loss. The Pistons gave up so many open jumpers in the second half it looked like an uncontested layup drill.

The Pistons D made Jordan Hill look like an all star (24-17,) Steve Blake had 17 assists with many of those buckets being finished by Nick Young and Jodie Meeks. Jordan Farmar even broke out of his slump with some key jumpers including a momentum shot to end the 3rd qtr.

As I indicated before the game, if you leave the Lakers open beyond the perimeter, they will shoot and that they did...going 10-25 from beyond the arc. The shots that missed, Jordan 'The Predator" Hill grabbed the rebound and put it in.

On the Piston side....well Drummond had 8 points in the first 8 mins of the game, and finished with only 14. He just didn't seem to be there in the second half. Moose was missing more FT than FG....he was 1-8 from the line....(he was 8-14 from the floor).

KCP started and hit a couple of jumpers, but he couldn't contain the Meeks or Young. In case anyone's keeping stats, KCP and Singler were a -22 and -20

Stuckey looked good in the first half scoring 12 pts, but was only able to get 4 in the second....

Jerry Stackhouse made a comment in the post game studio indicating that Stuckey needs the ball to run over people

Brandon Jennings had a horrible shooting first half but scored 19 of the Pistons 28 4th quarter points hitting 4 threes in less than 90 seconds...too late....as he was sitting on the bench when the Lakers blew it open with the 16-0 run. Any other time 23 pts and 14 assists would have been great if the team had won.

Josh Smith had a great night too, but most of his stuff came in the first half when the Piston should have had a double digit halftime lead and all they had to do is match bucket for bucket in the second half.

Missing in action were Bynum, Billups and Jack Nicholson......but Gores was there with his board of directors and he was not a happy owner at the end.

Although the Pistons Jennings made it close in the end, it made no sense to wait until it was less than 50 seconds to bring in Mitchell, Harrellson and Siva that late. They were down by 19 with 3 minutes left, should have thrown in the towel and brought in the garbage squad then.

Laker fans get free tacos when the team scores over 100 and holds the opposition under 100. This was only the second time in six home games that it has happen and the Pistons Josh Harrellson shot a 3 point brick at the end to assure that Taco Bell would be handing out freebies this week.

I am avoiding the phone tonight as I know my mother in law can't wait to rub it in.....and then one my employees will do the same to me tomorrow morning.

Ok that's it...time for the Walking Dead and if I have enough strength to stay up....Homeland.